EXCLUSIVE: NHS to fund £50,000 op to help cerebral palsy victims walk

CHILDREN paralysed by ­cerebral palsy are to be offered an operation on the NHS that will allow them to walk.

Holly Davies, second from the left, with her family [romedaviesphotography]

Until now the pioneering surgery that can free youngsters from wheelchairs and crutches has been available only privately at a cost of up to £50,000.

Kristian Aquilina, a leading child neurosurgeon who has carried out more than 60 of the operations on children in Britain, said: “I am very excited about doing this operation on the NHS. If children are selected and assessed properly the results are excellent.”

The NHS had blocked the operation, saying its worth had not been proved. However, intense lobbying by parents has led to a change of heart and around 120 children a year will get surgery at five centres including London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The procedure, known as selective dorsal rhizotomy, loosens tangles of nerves at the base of the spine that have been damaged in a child who was starved of oxygen at birth. The tangled nerves cause leg ­muscles to stiffen, making walking painful or impossible.

Within days of the surgery she was walking unaided for the first time in her life

Jo Davies

British parents have praised the operation, first developed more than a decade ago as life-changing.

They first became aware of it in 2007 and started travelling to America for surgery at the Children’s Hospital in St Louis, Missouri.

It cost each family around £50,000 and more than 100 have travelled across the Atlantic.

In 2010 Bristol Children’s ­Hospital allowed a surgeon to offer the operation to a small number of children. The treatment also became available in Leeds as long as individual local health authorities were prepared to pay.

Holly Davies, pictured at age four, only able to walk a few feet [PH]

Almost two years ago NHS England decided not to pay for the operation so parents again had to travel to the US or pay for private treatment here.

The parents of Holly Davies, mother Jo, 39, a manager in further education, and father Jerome, 37, a photographer from Daventry, Northamptonshire, took their daughter to America in 2010.

At that time all the four-year-old could do was stand on crutches and walk a few feet. Her leg muscles were so stiff she would fall over because she could stand only on tiptoe.

Jo said: “Within days of the surgery she was walking unaided for the first time in her life. By 2012 Holly was no longer on disability benefit and no longer classed as disabled.

“Now I have a different daughter who is brimming with confidence.

“She is so good on her feet she can ­outsprint her older ­sister Ellie, who is 12.”

A spokesman for NHS ­England said: “Although ­current evidence is limited, this surgery shows real promise for some patients with mobility problems and that’s why we want to explore it ­further through our innovative evaluation programme.”